I love the toys I had as a kid and I’m not alone when it comes to my fellow toy collectors. While there are plenty of newer toy brands in the aisles, many of the toys from my childhood are back to being the juggernauts in the aisle. With G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra coming to theatres on August 7th, toys for the movie are starting to fill up endcaps and at least four feet of space at stores just about everywhere. And while Joefans that have been treated to two years of 25th Anniversary nostalgia might not be as excited to see those toys replaced on the pegs by movie product, there are definitely some gems to be found among the new figures. Wanting to check ’em out, I grabbed one of my favorite classic characters, Shipwreck, and a character I wasn’t familiar with, Sgt. Stone.

One thing that I particularly enjoyed with these two figures was how they held their weapons. Both can hold their rifles in convincing poses. Shipwreck can also hold his gun, knife, giant bazooka, and even Polly’s feet. Stone can hold his gun, his knife loosely, and the remote for his missile launcher. And did you notice that list of weapons? It didn’t even include Shipwreck’s stand, belt, backpack, flippers, and diving mask, or Stone’s vest and stand. Shipwreck might be upping the average here, but these figures are loaded. Just the number of accessories is a welcome change from so many other toylines, but that they can hold all of them is a nice advantage over some of the 25th Joes too.  On the downside, there’s a real lack of holsters and sheaths – none of the weapons can be store on the figures.



If you’ve been buying 25th Anniversary Joes, then you can imagine what to expect when it comes to paint and articulation on these new movie Joes. For the most part, a collector willing to merge the two continuities could use the movie Joes as a sub-force with their matching camo and logos. I am not a big fan of the camo featured in the movie, specifically that it read “G.I. Joe”. Luckily, that tiny detail wasn’t captured on the figures. They now sport a simple grey/dark blue camo pattern. Both of my figures are painted well for this scale. Stone has some issues were his paint on his neck didn’t reach the collar, but was otherwise fine. My Shipwreck had no issues. You’ll have to pick and choose on the peg as I did, but it didn’t seem difficult to find figures I was happy with.



Overall, I was pretty happy with the figures even though I’m probably not going to pick up too many more. I buy Joes for the nostalgia and am looking forward to the classic line coming back after the movie product has sold through. But if someone wanted to collect the movie figures or for new collectors and kids getting into Joes for the first time, the movie Joes seem to hold up pretty well. I might pick and choose my own way through a few more. The Ice Viper and that yellow Barbecue at Toys R Us are calling…